On Saturday, September 24, Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 2844, known as the Anti-BDS bill, into law.
The bill mandates that companies doing business with the state of California do not engage in discriminatory conduct due to a boycott of Israel or any other sovereign state. And while the bill includes the “any other sovereign state” language, it was crafted from the beginning as legislation designed to target the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
The controversial bill was first introduced in the legislature this past April by Assemblyman Richard Bloom, a democrat representing Santa Monica. In its original form, the bill prohibited companies doing more than $100,000 in annual business with the state of California from boycotting Israel. This raised immediate concerns that the bill would violate the First Amendment by restricting the rights of free speech on behalf of companies that chose to boycott Israel.
The Assembly Appropriations Committee made subtle but significant changes to the language of the bill. In its final form, the bill applies its anti-discrimination language to all countries, leaving out any specific mention of Israel. Once this change in language was made, the bill received near unanimous approval in the state legislature, despite protests from the American Civil Liberties Union and Pro-Palestinian organizations.
Curiously, Gov. Brown chose to sign the bill into law without any comment and on a Saturday afternoon, almost guaranteeing a lack of coverage on the part of news organizations.